I am in the same boat ...you are not alone and I wanted you to know that. I have two degrees both of which have become almost useless. Getting a job seems next to impossible sometimes....I am going to keep fighting though because it is no excuse to go back to 3 hots and a cot from the state and no way to spend my life. Unfortunately people don't forgive and realize we have done the time and have paid the price and some of us are the hardest workers they will ever meet because we know what it is like to lose something precious, our freedom. I sometimes think no one out here understands where I have been and what I go through day to day....my prison experience which I was locked up for 5 years stays with me and the women I met there I sometimes miss because they seem more real than the friends I meet out here.....

The Following User Says Thank You to skitten1208 For This Useful Post:

Well, I have been in prison, about 6 or 7 times, serving a total of 30+ years...all in Texas prisons: Ferguson, Ellis, Ellis I (same prison but different years the first one before there was an Ellis II), Connally, Robertson, Goree, etc. but I have been out now 5 years which is great for me as I never lasted longer than maybe 14 months before.

Wow…I’ve been on PTO since March of 2010 and I just now saw this thread. What’s that Homer Simpson always says when he goofs up? “Dohh!!!” Oh well, better late than never.

I’ve done 15 years in the Texas prison system or the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice as it’s referred to in this day and time. I’ve also been there 3 times and once to what is referred to as ISF or an Intermediate Sanction Facility for parole violator’s. I did my time at Eastham, Michael, Neal, Gurney, Hutchins, Dawson and Baten ISF in Pampa. All my crimes have either been robberies or meth possession. I got started back in the summer of 1990 my first time down and have been in and out right up to this very year with a short stay at ISF in Pampa.

I was assigned to Atwater federal prison camp for an 8 month sentence on a charge of embezzlement. No previous criminal history, not even a traffic ticket in over 10 years. Finishing out my sentence in one of the lovely federal halfway houses right now as I speak. Definitely looking forward to finishing all of this off, doing my year of probation and putting this nightmare behind me.

I closed my file on a 3.5 year sentence in the early 90's at Limestone Correctional Facility in Alabama.
From 1997-2001 I was in various Missouri facilities and 12/12'd from Cameron in January '01.
Various county jails over the years.
Going on 10 years without even a traffic ticket!

Ten-year federal sentence:
June 2004--reported to FPC Atwater
July 2007--transferred to FPC Schuylkill
June 2010--transferred to FPC McKean (RDAP)
August 2011--released to halfway house (Ohio Link), Toledo, Ohio
January 2012--5 more years of Supervised Release

I was locked up for three years at The Walls, I was released in Feb 2011. In August 2011 a good friend of mine from the Walls died of heat stroke. I found out from others that were there at the time that he laid in the floor of the day room begging for help, but it did not come for approximately an hour. He was only 57, a vietnam vet and had done most of his time. This really pisses me off!!!

i just got out. i did time at lee arrendale state prison (alto) in alto, ga. i find it's sometimes difficult to cope and deal with the "real world". all of the daily stress and complications that you don't have on the inside. i find myself getting frustrated and overwhelmed at times. i have to keep believing that it gets easier and better.... if not i may as well go back.

I have been locked up since Oct. 2003. I was sentenced to 120 mo. & began my fed time in FTC OKC (transfer center work cadre) in '04 then was transferred to FMC Rochester in '06 then to FCI Big Spring in '08. I was released from FCI Big Spring (camp) in Feb 2012. I went to halfway house & then after about 45 days am on home confinement. Lots of changes out here but nothing we can't handle...just don't quit tryin'! 'Cause the worst day in the world is better than the best day in prison!

Only did time in the Feds at MDC Brooklyn in NY 27 month sentance 19 months in and 4 months at luzerne halfway house in philadelphia pa. Heres a brief overview of my time and what its like in the Cadre program. any questions ask thanks steve

I was in mdc brooklyn cadre program for 19 months from 2009-2011. Ill give you a breif overview of what it was like. Mdc brooklyn is basically a holding / transfer/pretrial facility. Its basically a place where you go while your awaiting trial, or transfering to another facility. I was designated there as part of there cadre program for minimum security prisoners or people that have done most there time and worked there way down. For the most part we were the facility's workforce/laborers for nearly no pay. When you first get into MDC you are placed in Unit G-41 a medical/holding unit until they designate what floor and which building you will be placed in. Here you get your vaccines and go through the process of medical problems and to get afflilated with the feel for the new facilily you are in. Also if your new coming in will get a pin number so you can use the telephones. I was in this unit for 5 days, it took me 4 days to get my pin number for the phone. After G41 you will be assigned to a floor and unit in where you be living for ever how long you are in. The cadre unit was 3 units on the fifth floor made up about between 100-120 inmates in each unit. It took me around 30 days of being in my unit before they gave me a and O which is admission and orientation so i could be assigned a job. This time gave me a chance to see what life inside was about. Jobs could be in the kitchen,maintance,orderly on the floor or sanitation and various other jobs.. Pretty much everyone started in the kitchen and then had to put request in to get transferred to another job. I put multiple request in for 8-10 months before i finally got transferred to electric ( my field of training on the street) so dont give up hope if your stuck in the kitchen keep putting in request forms. The few lucky ones received GATE PASSES which allows a cadre inmate to work outside sometimes or work in dayton manor (officers housing) . While i was there their was only about 25 people in each of the cadre units that had these. Supposedly you only have to be there for 3 months/ with no active detainers or conduct reports and you will get one but it took me 13 months to receive mine. ANd my first time on the real outside was after 15 months of being in and that was only for 5 minutes. Generally most the workers only make 20.00 a month or less which in prison world is really nothing.. so send your people some comissary money.. 400.00 a month they live life real good. But even 10-20 dollars makes a difference to us when were inside.
On the cadre floors we lived in 2 man cell which had a bed, locker, foot locker for under bed toilet and sink. HOnestly the two man cell's were great compared to living in dorms because they gave a place for privacy and relaxing without a bunch of people around you. There were rumours going around for the last 4-5 months i was there that the cadres were being moved into dorms, but as of when i left we were still in the two man cells.
Generally most of the people in the cadre program are short timers meaning 3 years left of there sentance or they received short sentances. For the most part it is safe, there is not alot of discrimanation and if you are a people person or stay out of other people's business you'll be okay. There are usually a couple fights on the cadre floor a year usually over tv or stupid stuff. Just stay out of peoples business and your good. ITs really boring in there, they have 4-5 tv's one is designated news, one sports, one spanish tv, and one general they also have a tv room where the sound is played out loud. If you want to listen to the tv's on the unit you have to buy a little fm radio. Its definitly worth buying if you have more then a month or two to do. They also have a mini library which has probably 2-3 hundred books, generally people that get books sent into them put them into the library once there done reading and it builds up. There is also a religous room, basically every night of the week there is a different congregation in there that can worship freely and watch religous videos. On the main floor of the unit there is also a ping pong table and they have the basic board games that we can use( monopoly,chess,checkers etc etc. Playing cards is big inside) Don't gamble it will only make you get into debt) even if you are good theres people that are better.... getting in debt in prison is a bad thing even in the cadre units.. so dont get into debt. We were able to buy comissary basically every 2-3 weeks and could spend 145.00 each time, basically gives you a taste of home, you can buy coffee,snacks,soda,fish (makeral and tuna are money inside so buy it) can be used for haircuts,bartering etc etc.. we had a decent list of food we can choose from, you can also get good toothpaste,shampoo,toilitries,radio,sweat pants, sneakers,underwear socks etc etc..but 145.00 adds up quick so figure out what you really need for your first comissary.. because its a long 2-3 weeks until the next one. but when you get in ask some people around you what you should buy. it helps believe me also alot of guys in there will help you with an extra blanket or towel or even some basic toiletries.. there not expecting anything in exchange ( dont get worrried) they know what it was like coming in and having nothing. WHen i first got there some guys from the protestant group gave me a welcome bag with much needed stuff that made my transition easier. Again this is in the CADRE FLOOR, pretrials floors are different as they are made up of all kinds of people and charges. im not saying cadres are better then anyone, but life is different everywhere and every prison your in. Phone calls are limited to 300 minutes a month. for me every call i made was long distance so and it cost .23 a mintue. Over 70.00 a month for the phone... You only can call for 15 minutes at a time and then the phone shuts off and you have to wait an hour before calling again. These minutes fly by so use catiuosly eventually you will get acclimaned to use these mintes and have some to spare. i generally made a call every other day and on saturday and sunday and it worked out pretty good. We also installed TRUlink which is a prison email system while i was there. It costs .5 a minute to type out and read emails no limit but make sure you have money in your account for it. THis made my life alot easier when i could just go type out an email to my family and friends and let them know i was good. Again comissary,phone,email all cost money but it is important to us on the inside (phone calls and emails are important to you on the outside) to help save you money you can get a local brooklyn phone number and we can call that and it only costs us .6 a minute instead of .23 a minute.. but remember your family and friends inside with that occasional 20.00 bill it really helps. Life inside takes some getting use to, but acceptance is a big part, you yourself have to realize its only for a time and you will get out. I was with guys that had did over 30 years and they finished in the cadre program. there is a shining light at the end of the tunnel. Its important to keep a good attitude while your inside, it helps you to deal with being there and will help your loved ones as well. True it sucks, but most of us did a crime and this is our punishment so now we gotta man up and deal with the consequence. ( You will get through it) as far as furloughs and stuff while i was there 3 people in 19 months of me being there got a 48 hour furlough and thats after getting lawyers involved and a bunch of hastle on top. They will get your hopes up when the administration talks about it, but in reality its not going to happen. Most people are eligable to go into the halfway house when there close to getting out, i went to luzerne in philadelphia and to me it was a lot better, different rules and different enviroment but you learn to live with it. It seems like they have been giving out more halfway house time, but it really depends on your sentance. As far as the correction officers go, they are pretty good if you respect them they will respect you. Some of the newbie officers will try to act high and mighty but like i said respect what they tell you and they will learn in time what it is. There is a counselor in each unit, generally you will have a meeting with them and prob realistically not talk with them again, its hard to get things done while your inside, medical and dental can sometimes take 1-2 + weeks to get to unless its a grave emergency. As your there you will learn the processes and way of life. good luck you will get through this, Isaiah 26:3-4 says THou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trustest in thee. This verse helped me to stay focused i knew God was in control of the situation and he gave me peace throughout it even in the down times. Families Love your members while there inside prison, dont blame them for there mistakes ( we all have them, some are different then others and some have higher consequences but were all guilty) but love them they need that from you as much as you need it from them. ALso share the love, send them magazine subscriptions,newspapers,books, they all have to be sent from the publishers like amazon or barnes and noble.com. You cant send them directly. Also send them phone money and comissary money, this really helps and is a blessing to them even if its only a little bit. Send hand written letters, i still have a box of letters that was sent to me, one day i will open it again and read them all. really an encouragment while i was in.. Visit them, mdc has an wide open visiting room (you cant bring them anything but they do have vending machines that only take quarters that you can buy them there favorite snacks or soda) bring alot of quarters..lol its expensive.. In the visiting room your are surrounded by inmates and there visitors sitting in the same area. SOme guards will allow you to hold hands, and only give a hug and kiss when coming and going... Visitors are searched coming in... not patted down unless they suspect something but through a metal detectors and what not, the only thing you can bring with you are quarters also dont wear green or orange or khaki colored pants or shirts,shorts,sweats,scrubs,sandles,clothing with rips or immodest clothing. They will ask you to leave ive seen people denied because they were khaki pants, they match the inmate uniforms to close and wont let you in because of security purposes. a safe bet is blue jeans,sneakers and a tshirt.......Okay i guess thats it for now, any questions just reply to this post and i will answer if i can, i hope ive been a help to someone. I know when i went in i could barely find anything on MDC brooklyn and the cadre program. Good luck and God bless.... you can endure anything for a time...

I am in the same boat ...you are not alone and I wanted you to know that. I have two degrees both of which have become almost useless. Getting a job seems next to impossible sometimes....I am going to keep fighting though because it is no excuse to go back to 3 hots and a cot from the state and no way to spend my life. Unfortunately people don't forgive and realize we have done the time and have paid the price and some of us are the hardest workers they will ever meet because we know what it is like to lose something precious, our freedom. I sometimes think no one out here understands where I have been and what I go through day to day....my prison experience which I was locked up for 5 years stays with me and the women I met there I sometimes miss because they seem more real than the friends I meet out here.....

I completely understand how you feel because I have the exact same issues! I miss some of the women I was incarcerated with, and I don't haven any friends bc I most people will never understand or get what all I have actually been through, and I guess I take life more seriously than others. Also, I am so grateful every day for surviving all I've been through, and for my freedom. I spent three years applying to every place that waS hiring and some that were not hiring, and only two call backs in three years, and of course, I didn't get either job However, don't ever give up because I just was hired almost 2 months ago, and it is going great! I'm taking college courses full time and working full time, so this con has it together! Plus, it's been five years since I waS released from prison and I'm getting real close to my date for being off parole. God is good!

The Following User Says Thank You to katsays2012 For This Useful Post:

I was locked up in Missouri's WERDCC, the women's prison in Vandalia, MO from 2005 to 2007. I went in on a 120 treatment deal, and I got kicked out of treatment for insignificant violations. They were dumb, one was for accepting a piece of candy from another inmate! I couldn't believe it, and that same day that I was in a meeting with treatment officials who decided my punishment I was put out into general population to wonder what would happen next. A few weeks later I received a paper saying I wouldn't see the parole board for another two years! My heart died that day, I had left two small boys for 4 months, ages 2 and 4, and now it was going to be 2 years before I would even know when I would get to go home to them. Just remembering it makes my heart drop. It was horrible! I eventually decided to make the best of my time and took a vocational course there, and I did everything I could to stay busy. It wasn't easy living with all those women, but I made some great friends that I hated to leave there. There are a couple who have life sentences and I haven't wrote or talked to them because I am still on parole and I can't jeopardize it, so I hope they understand. I'm going to sent one of them some money next week bc I remember how important it was, and I just got a job for the first time in three years. Now I'm working full time and taking college courses full time, and I am bound and determined to have a great life for my kids. I haven't been back and I'm getting real close to that date of being off parole. I have been clean from drugs for three years, and my life has improved so much! Prison was a God-send for me, that's what it took for me to wake up.

I was locked up for three years at The Walls, I was released in Feb 2011. In August 2011 a good friend of mine from the Walls died of heat stroke. I found out from others that were there at the time that he laid in the floor of the day room begging for help, but it did not come for approximately an hour. He was only 57, a vietnam vet and had done most of his time. This really pisses me off!!!

While I was incarcerated in WERDCC, the women's prison in Vandalia, I was in the day room across from another day room where a woman started bleeding out from the stomach. Come to find out, she had had surgery for a hernia weeks before and she had noticed something wrong. She had puss coming out and she self-declared a couple times, and the medical staff did nothing for her. She died that day when she bled out. It was horrible, but worse than that it was preventable and could have easily been avoided if they had cared enough to give her the proper care. Another woman who I knew before we even went to prison was in a coma for weeks in medical, and the great state of Missouri decided to release her from custody so they didn't have to pay the medical bills anymore, and she died at home an hour after she arrived. It was some kind of brain issue. Our department of corrections doesn't give a sh* about the inmates, they step over people laying on the ground having seizures in the rain. That is common knowledge.

I've heard something similar where some poor b****d was dying in prison - in the hospital - and was visited by a bunch of prison officials offering to be "compassionate" and allow him to be released to go home so "he could be with his loved ones". Couldn't have been that they didn't want another death in custody could it? Or am I just cynical.

__________________Becky

PTO New Staff Search for March and April 2013
Click HERE to learn more about joining Team PTO

My name is as posted i was in ga , hardwick prison for women ,,i have been out since i was 22,,along time back,,a miserable experience to say the least,,I went to college while there and stayed at colony farm for awhile,,i was there for drugs with intent and violation of firearms,,
I married and my soon to be ex is incarcerated in Alabama, he is in manslaughter and he has had his goodtime taken away by the adoc,,so prison sucks,,but all is well in my life here at home,,

I did my only real prison time in the Feds - Beaumont F.C.I. Medium - 27 months.

I have also been in the Federal Detention Center in Houston, Harris County Jail, Montgomery Co. Jail, Brazos Co. Jail & Boot Camp, Williamson Co. Jail, and a number of other Texas jails.
As a Juvi I did 9 months in TYC (Texas Youth Commission) and guess I didn't get enough, though I always seemed to skirt the law for the most part.. Doing just enough to walk the edge but rarely falling over. Have been on some type of paper since 1992 and am really looking forward to getting off in the next year or so. Federal Probation is MUCH easier (if you are doing right) than state.
My fed time/charge was Felon in possession of a firearm.

If anyone needs to know about Fed prisons, especially F.C.I. Beaumont, I'm here to help.. I can also cover some state related things but I will usually send you to someone else I know for that.

That's it in a nutshell, and I am very retired from that way of life.

David

Well hello David! I am going to be serving 12months and 1day (haha, one day) in FPC Bryan* I was wondering 2 things, can you legally smoke there do you know, and, how do they calculate good time in the feds?? If you can help me by answering these question I would be forever grateful.
Respectfully,
Adriana

Recently finished 5 years of federal supervised release. I actually received a congratulatory "achievement" certificate in the mail, with my name in fancy script, suitable for framing (do they think I'm going to hang it on my living room wall and show it off to visitors?!).

I was sentenced in '06 to "a year and a day" for one count of possessing child pornography. Because my "instant offense" occurred in '02, the applicable sentencing guidelines carried no mandatory minimum and weren't as harsh as they are today. I think the federal judge cut me a break on prison time but made up for it by imposing five years of supervised release (instead of the usual three), a $6,000 fine and, of course, a requirement that I join the SO registry club for 10 years (thank you, John Walsh).

I did my time (just 9 months) in the Low at Butner, NC -- a pretty soft former "club fed" facility about 30 miles north of Raleigh. It was a fascinating place for a (now-former) upper middle class white professional like me: a multi-culti mix of other SOs ("cho-mos") among the 1200 inmates, along with more than a few bad cops, protected witnesses, aging mafiosi, redneck mountain men and moonshiners, urban black gangbangers, a suspected federal judge and one disgraced US Congressman. Quite a scene!

My main cellie was a black OG with a mile-long rap sheet now doing 20 years on an escalated gun charge. He pretty much ran the housing unit (and all the poker games). It only took him two minutes to size me up and threaten to fuck me up but (I think because I leveled with him about my offense) we actually became pretty good friends (he called me at home from Butner the other day). Being known as his cellie and friend probably saved me from the more aggressive cho-mo haters circulating there (though I'd like to think it was my winsome personality).

Overall, my experience at Butner was positive -- in large part, obviously, because I was such a short-timer. I was sensitive to that from day one and didn't advertise it to others. I came to genuinely enjoy the cameraderie and sense of shared suffering (sort of). I'm probably the kind of guy other cons love to hate -- having had it so "easy" at Butner -- but prison is prison no matter how much better the food, recreation or sleeping arrangements are. Everyone would rather be out of there.

Now that I'm out I'm much more aware of criminal justice issues (especially disparate sentences and knee-jerk legislative overreactions to ill-perceived public safety threats). I'm no policy wonk on these issues, but I do highly recommend three books that have really spoken to me. Their titles tell you all you need to know (you can read more about them on Amazon):

THE NEW JIM CROW: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander (New Press).

THE CONVICT CHRIST: What the Gospel Says About Criminal Justice, by Jens Soering (Orbis).

BTW, prior to my incarceration I read a lot of postings on this site and found them very helpful for a total prison newbie like myself. During my 5 years of SR, I couldn't log back on. As you may know, many probation officers consider even this rather remote level of communication among men and women with criminal records to be a violation of release conditions. My PO was among them. Now that I'm completely free to associate with "my own kind" I'm back.